From: AdmrlLocke@aol.com Sent: Monday, January 24, 2000 12:43 AM To: undisclosed-recipients: ; Subject: GrammNet: The Real Bush Record GrammNet Issue 1/24/00.1 Dear Friend of Liberty, It's hard to believe, but even at this late date some people have not gotten the facts about George W. Bush's real record. Those of us on GrammNet have seen most of the material already, but some people still aren't getting the message, and I do have three new items today. Please help spread the word before tomorrow night--especially if you live in Iowa. 1. Bush's Tax Record. When Bush first ran for governor, he received a no-tax pledge form from the Texas-based conservative watchdog group, Citizens for Accountability. He reworded the pledge, signed it and returned it--along with two other pledges. After getting elected, Bush agreed to a Democratic proposal to raise 75 different taxes in Texas, with the emphasis on shifting control of education funding from the local level to the central state government in Austin. Republicans in the legislature fought the proposal tooth and nail, against Bush's will, and defeated it. The compromise bill Bush did get passed with the help of Democrats involved a good deal of sleight-of-hand, appearing to cut some taxes while in fact raising others. While Bush claimed to have cut taxes $3 billion, in fact, according to his own conservative Republican Lt. Governor, Bush's tax cuts were "most illusory," benefiting a small handful of Bush's Big Business buddies, who have subsequently rewarded him with thousands of dollars of campaign contributions. Last summer, Forbes accused Bush of breaking his no-tax pledge, and the liberal media came to Bush's aid, accusing Forbes of 'negative campaigning' for telling the truth. Then a funny thing happened: the head of Citizens for Accountability Issued a press release confirming that Bush had indeed broken his promise. Bush denied making the promise, so Citizens for Accountability released a copy of Bush's promise to the press. Bush tried to claim that the signature had been made by his signature machine, used in an unauthorized capacity by a campaign staffer. As "proof" that he couldn't have made the pledge, he claimed that he never makes any pledges! So Citizens for Accountability produced copies of his the other two pledges, clearly showing his signature. Caught out in his own lies, Bush then tried to claim that he hadn't raised taxes. Here too, however, he ran afoul of himself; Americans for Tax Reform responded to Bush's new lie by releasing a transcript of the 75 taxes Bush tried to raise. At the very time that Bush was caught lying about breaking his no-tax promise, congressional Republicans were trying to push through a minuscule tax cut of about 1.5%--barely worth noticing. But congressional Democrats and their liberal allies in the news media, always hostile to returning any of your money to you--cried bloody murder. Rather than reporting on Bush's own history of tax hikes, broken promises and lies, they focused on Bush's response to the Republican tax-cut proposal: "too radical," he called it. In 1995, when Bill Clinton shut down the government by vetoing Republican spending bills for having too little money, Bob Dole stabbed Republicans in the back by calling them "too radical" and siding with Clinton. In 1999 when Clinton fought the minuscule Republican tax cut, Bush too sided with Clinton and stabbed Republicans in the back--with the very same language! Bush now proposes a tax cut which, ironically, comes to virtually the same minuscule size as the one he attacked as "too radical." Your guess is as good as mine as to whether he was lying then when he said he thought the Republican tax-cut proposal was too radical or he's lying now when he claims he supports basically the same thing--or both. Bush simply has no credibility on taxes. 2. Bush on Education. Bush claims to support more local control, but his record shows otherwise. Big Government Republicans often seem to think that "local" means centralized in some state capital. But real conservatives know that local means local--your local school board. Bush has a consistent record of shifting control of education away from the local school boards and toward Austin. State (not local) spending in Texas on the government education bureaucracy has skyrocketed while Texas children's test scores have plummeted from an already poor 42nd in the nation to an abysmal 48th. We expect more central control, more spending and lower test scores from liberals, not from "reasonable conservatives." There's nothing reasonable or conservative about Bush's education record. 3. Bush on the Right Life. Bush claims to be pro-life, but according to pro-life activists he refused to lift a finger to pass the partial-birth abortion ban which Republicans finally passed in Texas. He refuses to commit to appointing justices to the Supreme Court who understand the purpose of the Constitution is to protect our rights to life, liberty and property. In fact, the ultra-liberal Time magazine last summer lauded Bush's appointments to the Texas judiciary for being "pragmatic"--the liberal code word for "not as liberal as we'd like, but liberal enough." And Bush's list of vice presidential running mates includes some of the most radically pro-choice Republicans in the country, like Christine Todd Whitman. The Bush campaign has even reserved web addresses like "www.Bush-Whitman.com," "www.Bush-Dole.com," and others containing pro-choice running mates. Nor does Bush's questionable support for the right to life end with abortion; in an interview last fall, Bush bragged about how he laughed callously at a woman on death row who asked for a pardon because she'd become a born-again Christian. Whether you believe she deserved a pardon or not, I'm sure you'll agree that the granting of a pardon in a death penalty case--a literal matter of life and death--requires serious, sober thoughtfulness, not callous, adolescent laughter. No, Bush has demonstrated no serious commitment to our right to life. 4. Bush on "The Environment." On September 13th liberal reporter John J. Fialka crowed about "this spring when Gov. George W. Bush teamed up with the Environmental Defense Fund and a green-leaning Democrat in the state legislature to force a 50% emissions cut." That's on top of the $70 billion his father imposed each year on American businesses by signing the Democrats' Clean Air Act. If W. Bush teamed up with environmental leftists in relatively conservative Texas, he will certainly make terrible deals with them at the federal level, where they wield more power, to impose even more "environmental" regulation on your liberty. 5. Bush on the Right to Bear Arms. Last September 4th, because of his waffling on whether or not he took illegal drugs, Bush stood in danger of losing liberal media support to John McCain. To keep the liberals on his side, Bush lurched violently leftward on your right to bear arms. Bush joined congressional liberal Democrats in support of the Clinton-Gore gun control proposals so ridiculous that even the generally spineless congressional Republicans fought them tooth and nail. Allegedly conservative Bush supported myriad gun-control measures including yet another federally-mandated waiting period, the first-ever federal age requirement for exercising your right to bear arms, and most amazingly a new proposal to confiscate your "large" ammunition clips! Bush took the typical Big Government Republican line (made famous by Dick Lugar in his campaign ads against guns in 1996) that "I support the Second Amendment, BUT... ." As we know, "but" means NOT. Remember that the road to prohibition almost always starts with small steps. Today a background check, tomorrow an age requirement, next year a clip confiscation, until the government finally confiscates the whole gun. Bush's support for the latest round of Clinton-Gore gun-control would already have us far down that road were it not for congressional Republicans. 6. Bush Campaign Ethics. If you're at all like me, you're sick and tired not only of the Democrats' endless proposals for more government, but also of their unethical campaign tactics. They exploit the loopholes in the post-Watergate campaign finance laws that they themselves passed, and in some cases just violate it outright as they sell their favors to Big Business and various special interest groups whose identity remains hidden behind the facade of PACs, front-companies, and Buddhist temples. The last thing we need is a Republican president likewise beholden to hidden interest money, especially from Big Business wanting big favors from Big Government. Yet as the first two articles below, from Newsweek, clearly indicate, Bush's money comes not from the grassroots contributions, as the liberal media have long proclaimed, but primarily from myriad well-heeled businessmen, lawyers and Washington lobbyists. Of course we find Big Oil and rich ranchers from Texas on the list, but you may be surprised to see that the list includes favor-seeking elites scattered across America from Washington, DC to Los Angeles, CA. Not only does most of Bush's money come from various elites rather than from common Republicans as Bush and the liberals have claimed, much of it he doesn't even report because it's being spent by his allies in violation of the liberals' own campaign finance laws, through allegedly unrelated groups in fact comprised of elite Bush supporters who have contributed the legal maximum. Forbes has filed suit to stop the illegal contributions of Bush's cronies. Last summer we saw that Bush tried to have his maxed-out contributors use an allegedly-separate organization called The Pioneers pay the $80,000 for his booth at the Iowa Straw Poll. It was Forbes who, by filing a suit with the FEC, embarrassed Bush into picking up the tab directly instead of accepting this illegal contribution. Now however, as you can read in the third article below, from the Associated Press, the maxed-out liberal supporters of Bush are up to the same illegal antics through their latest device: anti-Forbes advertisements and smear phone-calling by the so-called Republican Leadership Council. These Big Government Republicans--who modeled their group after the Democratic Leadership Council from which Bill Clinton came--have been running ads in Iowa trying to perpetuate Bush's lie, which we discussed above, about his real tax record. To avoid the campaign laws which prohibit them from contributing more money to Bush, they mention John McCain in the ad, trying to pretend they aren't Bush supporters. But as you'll see in the fourth article below, also from AP, John McCain now joins Steve Forbes in calling a spade a spade: it's George W. Bush, not Forbes, who has been engaging in negative--that is to say dishonest and sometimes even illegal--campaign advertising. Don't get me wrong: I oppose all government regulation of campaign financing; as an American citizen you have the God-given, natural right to contribute what you want to whom you want in order to support your political beliefs. Nothing could be more American. But Bush needs to either follow the rules, or state that he will NOT follow the rules and test them in court. But cheating through sham "Pioneer" groups or "Councils" simply isn't the sort of moral behavior we want from our fellow Republicans--or in our next president. So there we have it: Bush had broken his no-tax pledge and lied about it; he's shown callous disregard for your right to life; he's supported central control of your children's eduction; he's supported more environmental-extremist control of your property; he's supported more infringements of your right to bear arms; and he's run an unethical and at points even illegal campaign. So please: do yourself, your family, the Republican Party and the American republic a favor, and vote for Steve Forbes. I guarantee that you will never regret that vote. Sincerely, David B. Levenstam, CPA, MT, MA Forbes in 2000! GrammNet is an independent newsletter, not affiliated with Senator Gramm. To subscribe to GrammNet, email me at AdmrlLocke@aol.com, with a message to the effect that you'd like to subscribe. GrammNet back issues available at http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3390/ Steve Forbes web page (Forbes 2000) at http://www.forbes2000.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- campaigns - Subscribe to the Campaigns and Elections List at http://campaigns.listbot.com 1. Newsweek: Powerful Businessmen Behind Bush Fund-Raising Triumph Pioneers' Bundle $1,000 Donations From Firms; Special Codes Keep Score NEW YORK, Jan. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- While touted as a sign of grass roots enthusiasm for a candidate, Texas Gov. George W. Bush's fund-raising triumph is actually the product of a group of powerful businessmen who were looking for a candidate to support even before Bush entered the presidential race. About 150 of these fund-raisers, called the "Pioneers" by the Bush campaign, have been "bundling" contributions from individuals in major corporations and industries and each has raised more than $100,000, reports Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff in the current issue of Newsweek. At last count, more than 170,000 individuals have written checks which, by law, cannot exceed $1,000 apiece. (Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000115/HSSA003 ) Bush has raised so much money -- $67 million through 1999 -- that he has been able to forswear federal matching funds, freeing him of campaign spending limits. Under federal law, corporations can't contribute directly to a candidate. But by bundling, Bush's fund-raisers work around those rules. Individual employees at a firm can donate to a campaign and the money adds up. Bundling is legal, and all campaigns do it. But Bush's Pioneers have done it more vigorously than most, Isikoff reports. The core players in the Bush fund-raising machine include: Heinz Prechter, who made a fortune by inventing the automobile sun roof; John Hennessy, a Wall Street investment banker; Brad "Fargo" Freeman, who made millions as a merchant banker in Los Angeles; Don Evans, a Midland Texas oilman who oversees Bush's fund-raising; Peter Terpeluck, a high-energy Washington lobbyist; Tom Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Institute, lobbying arm of the electric power company; and Ray Hunt, scion of the Texas oil fortune. Many Washington lobbying groups, whose clients will have large stakes in any Bush administration, have jumped on the bandwagon, Isikoff reports in the January 24 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, January 17). The heads of two dozen powerful trade associations have been holding regular conference calls about how to help Bush and have been pushing their members to contribute. The campaign has assigned "tracking code" numbers to these trade association heads. Staffers call the code a bookkeeping device, but the Bush campaign and the lobbyists use the numbers as a kind of scorecard. In an internal Bush campaign memo obtained by Newsweek, Edison Electric chief Kuhn, a Bush classmate at Yale, reminded power company executives to include the industry's tracking code on the bottom of their checks for a Bush fund-raiser. Written on Bush campaign stationery, the May 27, 1999 memo states, "It does insure that our industry is credited, and that your progress is listed among the other business/ industry sectors." Some of the men behind the money are driven less by personal loyalty to Bush than by the need to find an electable candidate -- a conservative without a hard edge. Isikoff reports that Prechter first noticed Bush at meetings of the Republican Governors Association during the mid-1990's. He was struck by how the crowds parted when Bush walked in the room. "I just had a gut feeling," he recalls to Newsweek. "He was a winner. I started quietly networking." In February 1998, Prechter invited a dozen or so of the heaviest hitters in the GOP to his 10,000-acre cattle ranch outside Wheeler, Texas. They watched Bush address some Eagle Scouts and their parents at an auditorium and then peppered him with questions while sitting around Prechter's fireplace. Then they donned camouflage and went bird hunting. They decided that if Bush was willing to enter the race, the big fund-raisers would ensure he had the resources to win, Isikoff reports. "We all looked at each other and thought the same thing," recalled Hennessy. Article attached. Read Newsweek's press releases at www.Newsweek.com. Click "Pressroom." ------------------ ------------------ 2. Bush Credits Grass-Roots Enthusiasm for his Fund-Raising Triumph. Look Again: At the Heart of His Operation Are a Handful of Gop Kingmakers Who Placed Their Bets Early. By Michael Isikoff The Money Machine You've probably never heard of Heinz Prechter. The diminutive 57-year-old Bavarian immigrant made a fortune by inventing the sunroof for the auto industry. He is known by his friends for his good cheer and for driving expensive, German-made sports cars through the streets of Detroit at high speeds. The name Brad (Fargo) Freeman may not be familiar, either. Freeman made millions as a merchant banker in Los Angeles. A bon vivant who squires models around Beverly Hills, Calif., Freeman is known for his practical jokes, like placing for sale signs on the manicured lawns of his business buddies. Prechter and Freeman and a half dozen or so other wealthy Republican businessmen deserve to be better known -- as potential kingmakers. If George W. Bush survives John McCain's challenge and goes on to win in November, the biggest single reason may be money. Through 1999 Bush had raised a staggering $67 million, four times as much as McCain and more than the two Democratic rivals, Gore and Bradley, combined. Bush has raised so much that he has been able to forswear federal matching funds, freeing him of campaign spending limits. After the primaries, when the Democratic nominee will be tapped out, Bush can afford to keep his ads on TV up until the summer conventions. To hear the governor's campaign aides talk, he has been the beneficiary of spontaneous, down-home enthusiasm. At last count, more than 170,000 individuals have written checks that, by law, cannot exceed $1,000 apiece. "This has been a totally grass-roots, broad-based individual effort across America," says Don Evans, the silver-haired Midland, Texas, oilman who oversees Bush's fund-raising. "People talk about special interests," says Freeman, who is Bush's top moneyman in California. "How can you have special interests when you have 170,000 donors?" The answer is: by knowing how to manipulate the rules. Bush's money machine has been carefully constructed by a small group of men who are experts at the art of "bundling" $1,000 contributions. All presidential campaigns exploit such techniques, but, profiting from flush times, the Bush team has taken the game to a new level. The story of how these champion fund-raisers chose Bush as their standard-bearer may be the most important saga of the campaign. It reveals to what degree the governor has benefited from a powerful network of wealthy businessmen, who are likely to have his ear if he is elected president. Their common bond is making money, giving money to the Republican Party and manly pursuits, like hunting and golf. In addition to Prechter, Freeman and Evans (who recruited Bush to his Bible-study group), the core players include Peter Terpeluck, a high-energy Washington lobbyist; Tom Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Institute, lobbying arm of the electric-power industry; Ray Hunt, scion of the Texas oil fortune, and John Hennessy, a Wall Street investment banker. Their friends include pharmaceutical heir Robert Wood Johnson, who this week bought the New York Jets for $635 million and entertained his cronies on one Bush hunting trip by bringing along an elephant gun. About 150 of these champion fund-raisers have been designated as "Pioneers" by the Bush campaign. Each has raised more than $100,000 in $1,000 donations, and many have personally given hundreds of thousands of dollars in "soft money" to the Republican Party. Most of Bush's core moneymen are not likely to ask him for jobs or explicit favors. "I don't have an agenda -- and I don't give a hoot about being in government," Prechter told Newsweek. One of Prechter's fund-raising associates remarked, "He does this because he loves being a player, loves being a part of the action." Even so, Prechter has profited in the past from his Bush associations. Named to accompany President Bush on a trade mission to Japan in 1992, Prechter used the trip to sign a lucrative deal granting his American Sun Roof Co. rights to put sunroofs on Hondas. (Prechter said the deal was in the works before the trip.) Many Washington lobbying groups, whose clients will have large stakes in any Bush administration, have jumped on the bandwagon. The heads of two dozen powerful trade associations -- representing steel, chemical, electric power, oil and other industries -- have been holding regular conference calls about how to help Bush and have been pushing their members to contribute. The campaign has assigned "tracking code" numbers to these trade-association heads. Staffers call that a bookkeeping device, but the Bush campaign and the lobbyists use the numbers as a kind of scorecard. In an internal memo obtained by Newsweek, Edison Electric chief Kuhn, a Bush classmate at Yale, reminded power-company executives to include the industry's tracking code on the bottom of their checks for a Bush fund-raiser. Written on Bush campaign stationery, the May 27, 1999, memo states, "It does insure that our industry is credited, and that your progress is listed among the other business/industry sectors." Various groups have been competing for the biggest war chest. Tom Hammonds, president of the Food Marketing Institute, estimates his industry has kicked in "just under $500,000" to Bush's campaign. Frederick Webber, president of the Chemical Manufacturers of America, puts the figure for his group at about $350,000. The American Petroleum Institute's Red Caveney has helped steer more than $1 million in oil money into the Bush coffers. This money machine was gearing up before Bush declared, even privately, that he was a candidate for president. Some of the men behind the money are driven less by personal loyalty to Bush than by the need to find an electable candidate -- a conservative without a hard edge. Prechter, who for many years has been the principal fund-raiser for Gov. John Engler of Michigan, began noticing Bush at meetings of the Republican Governors Association during the mid-'90s. He was struck by how the crowds parted when the Texas governor walked in the room. "I just had a gut feeling," he recalls. "He was a winner. I started quietly networking." Prechter began working the phones and chatting up Bush's "star quality" to his fellow GOP moneymen. One of them recalls being lobbied by Prechter in the men's room as they stood at the urinal. Bush himself was coy about running. At the dedication of the George Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M in November '97, the moneymen were disappointed by the younger Bush's reluctance to give them a sign to start gathering checks in earnest. The governor said that he was worried about exposing his teenage daughters to the rigors of a presidential campaign, and he still had to get re-elected in Texas in November '98. Still, Bush did not say no. In February '98, Prechter invited a dozen or so of the heaviest hitters in the GOP to his 10,000-acre cattle ranch outside tiny Wheeler, Texas. The event became known as "the Hunt," and in retrospect, it was a turning point. Donning 10-gallon hats and cowboy boots, the moneymen watched Bush address some Eagle Scouts and their parents in a local high-school auditorium. They sat around Prechter's fireplace and peppered Bush with questions, then everyone donned camouflage and went bird hunting. The fat cats were sold. Bush's teasing, masculine manner was comforting to the business tycoons, all of them successful, middle-aged white men. "We all looked at each other and thought the same thing," recalled Hennessy, the Wall Street banker. The word went out: if Bush was willing to take the plunge, the big fund-raisers would ensure he had the resources to win. Quietly over the next year, the moneymen expanded Bush's financial reach throwing gala fund-raisers for him in Los Angeles and Washington. Then, starting in 1999, small groups of bankers and corporate tycoons started flying to Austin for private lunches at the governor's mansion. The financial base of the Republican Party -- computing entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley, chemical company CEOs, Wall Street bankers -- was getting locked up, even though Bush had yet to declare. When he finally did on June 12, 1999, he already had $15 million in the kitty. Typical was this scene in Bush's private dining room last March. After the governor made his breezy presentation to a group of two dozen pin-striped executives, Evans stood up and announced that he hoped each of the guests would make "a significant contribution." Herb Collins, a Massachusetts real-estate mogul, popped up his hand. "We're going to do $250,000 for you in Boston!" he exclaimed. There was a hush, then a whistle from someone in the crowd. A quarter of a million? From the most liberal city in America? Before long, the CEOs were clustered around Evans, throwing out bigger numbers. Political experts are awed by the Bush fund-raising prowess. "I have never seen anything like this," said Stan Huckaby, a consultant who tracks political fund-raising. "Is phenomenal the right word? I don't think that does it justice." Backed by his father's national network, Bush started out with a Texas money machine that generated $41 million for his two gubernatorial campaigns. Strategists also relied on the fund-raising operations of GOP governors loyal to Bush, including Michigan's Engler, Oklahoma's Frank Keating and Pennsylvania's Tom Ridge. The real key to Bush's unprecedented fund-raising success, however, has been his Pioneers. They use their contacts to start a chain: one man recruits 10 friends willing to chip in the maximum of $1,000 apiece. They in turn recruit 10 more friends each. "It's sort of like an Amway deal," says Louis A. Beecher Jr., a Texas oil baron and early Pioneer. Under federal law, corporations can't contribute directly to a candidate. But by bundling, the Pioneers work around those rules. Consider Vinson & Elkins, the blue-chip Houston-based law firm (which also lobbies in Washington for banking, energy and gambling interests). As a firm, it can't give Bush a dime. But senior partners Joe Allen and Tom Marinis, both Bush Pioneers, arranged for their partners, associates and spouses to donate a total of $185,000 to Bush's campaign. Likewise, Ken Lay, the chairman of Enron, an energy conglomerate, wrote top company executives asking them to make the "maximum" contribution to Bush -- and ended up collecting $92,000. As long as employees aren't overly pressured, bundling is legal, and all campaigns do it. But Bush's Pioneers have done it more vigorously than most. Take FirstEnergy Corp., an Ohio utility. At its annual meeting last August, about 170 top executives heard a pitch for Bush from Anthony Alexander, the firm's general counsel. Alexander passed out donation forms. Within a few days, he had $72,000 for Bush -- all "strictly voluntary," says FirstEnergy spokesman Ralph DeNicola. Maybe so, but FirstEnergy was recently sued by the Environmental Protection Agency for violating the Clean Air Act. The Bush campaign is hardly promising that a Bush administration would drop the lawsuit. But the governor is known to favor voluntary pollution cutbacks rather than mandatory rules. Lobbyist Webber arranged for a group of chemical-industry CEOs to fly to Austin to talk to Bush -- then threw a Bush fund-raiser at the annual meeting of his association, pulling in $100,000. Webber concedes that this generosity is directly related to Bush's willingness to listen to the industry's views. "We feel a lot more comfortable with Bush," he says. This fall, while the press was following John McCain around New Hampshire, Bush was continuing to meet with corporate executives and other high rollers sent to him by the Pioneers. While McCain was charming reporters on the bus, Bush has continued to stay far ahead in the money race, raising $10 million to McCain's $6.1 million between September and January. The weeks ahead will test whether the Bush money machine pays off. SOURCE Newsweek ---------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------- 3. Forbes Angered By Negative Phoning AMES, Iowa (AP) - Republican presidential contender Steve Forbes said Sunday that a Republican group with ties to rival George W. Bush is coordinating a negative telephone campaign against him. The effort proves he is ``a real threat to the political establishment,'' Forbes said on the eve of Iowa's caucuses. The group, the Republican Leadership Council, acknowledged it called supporters for eight days, ending Friday, to remind them that ``Steve Forbes has a history of negative attack ads and negative campaigning.'' Forbes said his campaign has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission. Callers who responded favorably to the RLC's warning were patched straight through to Forbes' Iowa headquarters or were urged to call the campaign directly, said RLC communications director Matt Well. The RLC conducted a similar effort in New Hampshire, Well said. ``We want to remind Steve Forbes that (negative) ads only tear down the Republican Party,'' Well said. ``We asked them if they would like to voice in their own words to the Forbes campaign how they felt about his negative ads, to ask the Forbes campaign to run a clean campaign on the issues.'' Forbes was criticized in 1996 for a series of hard-hitting ads that Republicans said undermined the campaign of eventual nominee Bob Dole. Forbes said after a rally at Iowa State University that the weeklong campaign was really the work of the Bush campaign, and characterized the RLC as a ``pro-abortion, liberal organization.'' ``Sadly, it's a typical procedure of the Republican establishment,'' Forbes told reporters. ``I think that underscores that we're a very real threat to the political establishment, that we are gaining real strength here. ... I'm sad to see that it's happening again, but I'm not surprised at all.'' Well said about 70 percent of the RLC's advisory board supports Bush, but said the group decided to conduct the phone effort without conferring with Bush's campaign. Mindy Tucker, a Bush spokeswoman, did not immediately return a phone call Sunday seeking comment. Forbes said his campaign manager, Bill Dal Col, has filed a complaint with the FEC accusing the Bush campaign and the RLC of improper coordination. The Forbes campaign received about 200 such calls directed to it from the RLC, Dal Col said. He said the calls - about 20 a day - did not hamper the campaign ------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- 4. McCain Ad: Bush Going Negative WASHINGTON (AP) - Striking back against Texas Gov. George W. Bush, Sen. John McCain is set to air a new ad accusing Bush of breaking his promise to steer clear of negative campaigning. McCain also accuses Bush of misleading voters over taxes. ``I guess it was bound to happen. Now my opponent has started the political attacks after promising he wouldn't,'' McCain says, speaking to the camera in a new 30-second TV ad for New Hampshire. ``Mr. Bush's attacks are wrong.'' Taxes, including how large a tax cut should be, have emerged as the principal issue between the leading GOP candidates for president, and the two have been arguing over the New Hampshire airwaves and in person. Beyond the details of the tax dispute, the new ad shows just how tense the campaign between Bush and McCain has become in the days leading up to the Feb. 1 New Hampshire primary. Just last week, the pair shook hands during a debate, promising not to air negative ads against one another. Bush has a $483 billion, five-year tax-cut plan - so large, McCain says, that it would endanger Social Security and leave no money to pay down the national debt. Bush, in turn, has attacked McCain's plan, which would cut taxes by $237 billion over five years, as paltry. And he aired a TV ad this week accusing McCain of closing a tax loophole that would amount to a $40 billion tax increase on workers. In the ad, Bush says he is simply pointing out a plan he disagrees with. ``I darn sure don't agree with saying you're going to take $40 billion of employer-related benefits and have people pay taxes on them,'' Bush says. In his new ad, McCain responds: ``My plan cuts taxes, secures Social Security and pays down the debt. There is no tax increase.'' After the Bush ad surfaced, the McCain campaign released documents indicating that the loophole in question would actually raise $3.9 billion, not $40 billion as Bush claims, by ending exemptions on some fringe benefits provided by employers. The McCain campaign explained that his proposal would only affect payments for employee parking, meals, transportation, health spas, sports tickets, employee discounts and athletic facilities. But the Bush campaign has continued to pound McCain on the issue, saying it wants to see the details of the plan. ``If they were able to release their estimates, it would be much easier to resolve this issue,'' said Ari Fleischer, a Bush spokesman. Fleischer said the campaign would stop running the ad if they got the detailed explanation. But the campaign has actually already stopped the ad. It was intended to run for only one or two days, part of the Bush campaign's effort to immediately air ads featuring material from the campaign trail. Bush has aired several ads that tout his tax plan, including a new one released today with Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. ``Now, some say Bush's plan to cut taxes is too much,'' Gregg says in the 30-second spot. ``They believe if you leave money in Washington it will not get spent. We know better.'' The typical TV viewers in New Hampshire will see the new Bush and McCain ads six to 10 times each over the next week, campaign officials said.